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The Isles of Aura
The Isles of Aura are the westernmost land masses on the Mortal Realm. The main island, known as Aurora, is the only island that remains above sea level permanently. The various other islands shift locations, each in individualized intervals. These shifting islands are referred to by mainlanders as Oren, for both plural and singular. According to ancient mythology, Aurora and Oren were two lesser gods that were bound together in eternal conflict. Oren, a lord of the land, fell in love with Aurora, a beautiful goddess of the sea. They met when Aurora came inland, and met Oren. She was surprised by Oren, and flattered by his curiosity of her. Oren had never seen the sea before, as his domain was far inland. Aurora enjoyed Oren's company, but wasn't too attached to their friendship, and certainly could not love him because of his provincial ways. Oren loved Aurora, but promised to quit this emotion if she would only stay. He could not imagine life without the goddess's presence. When Aurora left, Oren followed as far as he could. And when she leapt back into the sea, Oren did too, even knowing that he could never return. The two continued swimming, many leagues away from land, and stopped when they reached the World's End. Cornered, and still not been able to escape him, she tried to turn around, and swim back across the sea in the opposite direction. But Oren blocked her path. The two continued to fight, until Aurora gave up in frustration, and became a glacier of ice. Oren surrounded this glacier with a rocky isle, and promised her that he would never let her go. Aurora was a goddess, and was not so easily captured. The glacier she had encased herself in was wrought of water magic, and over time tried to repel Oren earthen grip. Evidence of this, it is said, are the floating and moving bits of earth that have broken off the mainland, and desperately try from every angle to breach Aurora's magic. Sirus, or perhaps another avatar, will tell a different tale about the two. Apparently when Aurora and Oren were together, they created thick mud wherever they met. Aurora was worried about this mud's side effect on the land, so she left. Oren followed her, and she tried to lose him before he could be swallowed up by the sea. When they reached the World's End, Oren had apparently used up most of his stamina, and could not return to land. Aurora turned into a floating base of ice for Oren to cling to, and the island was formed. They still remain apart because if Aurora were to ever regain her avatar form, Oren would sink to the bottom of the sea. I think this becomes relevent when Sirus, or another mysterious powerful story teller, comes to the land to throw it back towards the central continent. There, the two gods will be in the desert. However, Oren, who misunderstood Aurora's intentions, will spend one thousand years as a sandy desert. Aurora will try to find him, and unable to speak with him turns into the desert rain. Mud can no longer be created, and the two experience a reversal. When Twilight Kingdom is reformed under the three prophets, Aurora and Oren will finally live together happily. One particular phenomenon, a cluster of islands known as Oren's Sentinels, is the most heavily contested territory of pirates. This island cluster orbits Aurora vertically, flying high above and across the island, then sinking back beneath the sea and under the island. Three islands can be exposed at any one time, except on the exceptionally rare -- even mythic -- days where four are accessible. Some days, there are less, or even no islands flying above the island. Before becoming a pirate hot spot, this was seen as a bad omen. However, pirates have discovered that the longer the islands stay below ocean, the more treasure laiden they are when they rise up. Which leads us into why pirates care about these islands so badly. When the Oren's Sentinels drop below sea level, they apparently move against the span of the ocean floor. When a sentinel rises above the ocean, it frequently is found to have caught up remnants of ships sunken in pirate wars. Ancient and recent debris is found on the shores of each, and if left unsullied, usually lands on the mainland. While potential showers of gold at first makes Aurora sound like an appealing place to live, the villagers were often plagued by ancient pirate ships being dredged up from the ocean floor and dropped on their settlement. When the pirates came, with the intent to salvage the ships as well as the treasure, the locals were more than happy. Aurora is considered holy ground and a cease fire zone by pirates. The town cannot be ransacked or robbed from, and no pirate war can be waged within three miles of the coast. However, unlike Full Moon Bay, or other pirate safe havens, criminals cannot find refuge here. If one tries, the townspeople can elect other bands of pirates to remove them. There are three zones where islands will move across on one specific day. They are known as the Rising Port, the Isolated Crest, and Rapid Falls. The Rising Port is far enough away from the mainland that pirate skirmishes often take place here as pirates attempt to salvage the ships or make quick plunders on the Oren Sentinel that surfaces. There is a limited amount of time in which they have to do this before the island becomes airborne. Pirates who elect to stay longer and do a more thorough search of the island may stay on, but they must wait out the entire three days it takes to make the cycle across, and need a boat scheduled to pick them up in the ocean on the other side. This is when they pass through the Isolated Crest. The final stage is known as Rapid Falls because the speed at which the island takes this final zone is noticeably faster than the first two. Many people feel lighter due to the constant falling, and lighter objects on the island get displaced and thrown around. This sudden jolt of speed is what causes things on the island to fall into the main town below. It is possible to get off the floating islands before they land, but this requires a parachute: something which the town of Aurora sells with high popularity. They have an agreement with the pirates that they can be the only vendors of parachutes used over Aurora. They assure this by changing the designs and colors of the valid parachutes at random intervals throughout the year. The punishment of using an invalid parachute is death by sniper. Pirates left bitter by losing a comrade this way either choose not to return, or forget about the incident. No amount of pirates can seize Aurora by force, especially now that enough pirate revenue has come their way to allow them to build coastal defense systems of their own. Even with these defense systems in place, they usually choose to hire other pirates to come to their defense as an honorary gesture to only the most exalted pirate groups. It is considered prestigous to be Defenders of Aurora. Upon drawing near the Isles of Aura, seafarers often experience aurae: a light warning sensation that they are drawing near. Category:World Category:Mortal Realm Category:Site of Mythos Category:Mythology